Philips / TP Vision shuns Dolby Vision in favor of HDR10+

TP Vision, the manufacturer of Philips TV in Europe, will put its weight behind the HDR10+ format rather than Dolby Vision, a company official has confirmed to Video Magazin. All 2018 TVs will offer HDR10+ and select 2017 TVs will receive a firmware update.

Samsung, Panasonic & Philips

The HDR10+ format was developed by Samsung as a royalty-free alternative to the proprietary Dolby Vision. Earlier this year, Samsung, Panasonic and 20th Century Fox formed an alliance to promote the format.

TP Vision has so far ignored Dolby Vision so it does not come as a huge surprise. HDR10+ offers a higher level of flexibility when designing the video chain, something that TP Vision has favored in the past. Note that Philips TV in the US is a separate company that has chosen to support Dolby Vision.

Left: HDR10+ - Right: HDR10

What about the content?

There are a few noteworthy details to point out. HDR10+ is not yet supported in Google’s Android TV that TP Vision is using as its operating system in Philips TVs. As of version 7.0, Google had added technical support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG. It is up to each manufacturer to add final support. Of course, the company may opt to support HDR10+ only via HDMI at first. HDR10+ can be supported over HDMI 2.0b, as reported by FlatpanelsHD earlier this year.

Like Dolby Vision, HDR10+ is based on dynamic metadata, which means that HDR video can be optimized on a scene-by-scene or even frame-by-frame basis. This can improve shadow detail as well as specular highlights in the picture.

So what about content? By now, there’s a fair portion of content available in Dolby Vision. There is zero content available in HDR10+. Besides 20th Century Fox, Amazon has pledged support for HDR10+, saying that content will be made “available on Prime Video globally later this year”. At IFA in September, the Blu-ray Association said that there are ongoing discussions to include HDR10+ as an optional HDR format.

It is clear that HDR10+ is at least a few years behind Dolby’s format but with more companies joining, the format is gaining momentum. Philips usually unveils its new TV line-up in February/March.